研究表明 腿部运动能使你的大脑更聪明

Exercising your legs is necessary for a healthy brain and nervous system, said a new study that showed that neurological health depends on signals sent by leg muscles to the brain and vice versa.

一项新研究表明，腿部锻炼对于大脑和神经系统的健康十分必要，神经健康依赖于腿部肌肉传送到大脑的信号，反之亦然。

The results gave doctors new clues as to why patients with motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy and other neurological diseases often rapidly decline when their movement becomes limited.

这一研究结果为医生们提供了新的线索，解释为什么运动神经元疾病、多发性硬化症、脊髓肌肉萎缩和其他神经系统疾病的患者在运动受限时肌肉往往会迅速萎缩。

Reducing exercise makes it difficult for the body to produce new nerve cells -- some of the very building blocks that allows one to adapt to stress and challenges in life.

减少锻炼会降低身体细胞的再生成，而这些新生细胞正是人们适应生活压力并并面临挑战的基本要素。

"Our study supports the notion that people who are unable to do load-bearing exercises -- such as patients who are bed-ridden, or even astronauts on extended travel -- not only lose muscle mass, but their body chemistry is altered at the cellular level and even their nervous system is adversely impacted," said Raffaella Adami from the University of Milan, in Italy.

意大利米兰大学的拉法埃拉·阿达米表示：“我们的研究表明，那些无法做负重练习的人，如卧床不起的患者甚至是长期工作的宇航员，他们不仅会失去肌肉，他们身体的化学成分也会在细胞水平上改变，这些改变甚至会对他们的神经系统产生不利影响。”

During the study, the researchers restricted mice from using their hind legs, but not their front legs for a period of 28 days. They continued to eat and groom normally and did not exhibit stress.

在这项研究中，研究人员在28天内绑住老鼠的后腿，但是让其前腿可以继续运动，这些老鼠可以正常的进食和刷洗，也没有表现出压力。

The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, showed that limiting their leg activity decreased the number of neural stem cells by 70 per cent compared to a controlled group of mice, which were allowed to use their legs.

试验结果发表在《神经科学前沿》杂志上，试验表明，与那些可以使用双腿的对照组小鼠相比，限制它们的腿部活动可使神经干细胞的数量减少70%。

Further, they found that restricting exercise lowered the amount of oxygen in the body, which created an anaerobic environment and alters metabolism.

此外，他们发现限制运动可以降低体内的氧气含量，从而产生厌氧环境进而改变了新陈代谢。